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Williamsv.State

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
Docket No.S22A0836
DecidedFebruary 7, 2023
Reporter315 Ga. 490; 883 S.E.2d 733; 2023 Ga. LEXIS 26
JudgesBethel, J.; all Justices concur, except LaGrua, J., disqualified.
Tags
CriminalMurderCell Site Location InformationSearch Warrant ParticularityJury InstructionsAccomplice CorroborationPlain Error Review
Case Summary

After Gay kept the $900 Williams paid for marijuana, Williams returned to Atlanta saying he wanted to find Gay. A gunman with multicolored dreadlocks shot Gay in a store; eyewitness Sherrer identified Williams, and cell-site records placed Williams nearby. A jury acquitted Williams of malice murder but convicted him of felony murder, aggravated assault and firearm possession; aggravated assault merged into felony murder. He received life imprisonment plus five consecutive years. He argued that Verizon cell-site data came from a warrant lacking a sufficiently particular description and that the jury needed an accomplice-corroboration instruction because Davis testified. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed. It held that unpreserved Fourth Amendment challenges to admitted evidence are eligible for plain-error review, but the cell-site ruling was not clearly erroneous: no controlling authority required a warrant for provider-held digital records accessed through an online portal to identify the physical data-storage location. Assuming an accomplice instruction was required, its omission did not affect substantial rights because Davis’s material testimony was corroborated by Sherrer, video and cell-site evidence. Williams’s convictions and sentences were affirmed. The aggravated-assault count, not the firearm count, had merged into felony murder.

Opinion

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